Category: The Rave Board
All of the different iterations of Android.
(Credit: CNET)
The America Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission today asking the agency to investigate the four major mobile carriers'
security practices in regards to smartphones.
The civil liberties group claims that AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint are not doing enough to protect users' private and personal data -- specifically
on
Android
devices. The gist of the complaint (
PDF)
is that these carriers aren't providing users with timely security updates, which the ACLU says is akin to "deceptive and unfair business practice."
"The major wireless carriers have sold millions of Android smartphones to consumers," the ACLU wrote in its complaint. "The vast majority of these devices
rarely receive software security updates."
The ACLU claims that while Google has published updates to fix exploitable security vulnerabilities, these fixes have not been sent out to consumers.
"Android smartphones that do not receive regular, prompt security updates are defective and unreasonably dangerous," the ACLU wrote. "As the FTC has acknowledged,
security vulnerabilities on consumers' mobile devices may be used 'to record and transmit information entered into or stored on the device ... to target
spear-phishing campaigns, physically track or stalk individuals, and perpetrate fraud, resulting in costly bills to the consumer... [and to misuse] sensitive
device functionality such as the device's audio recording feature... to capture private details of an individual's life.'"
Android devices are notorious for attracting malware and some of it is quite sophisticated. Some types of malware can embed themselves on smartphones and
steal information from users, while others act as spyware and take over components of the device. Last October, the
FBI warned users to be aware
of such mobile malware because it is especially lured to Android's operating system.
I am so!!!!!! glad to see the ACLU step in on this matter, currently t-mobile and A T and T have not released android 4.1.2 to there galaxy S3 and yet sprint and VZ have already updated set device to 4.1.2. VZ and sprint are now working on 4.2 for there S3 devices. So go ACLU I want them to knock some sense into these carriers. Even the android crazy fan that I am, this type of practice is about to make me swop my S3 in for an Iphone5. Yes I could root my device but after seeing how my carrier's treated my device as a 3G device or lower I think I will just get a tablet to root and play with in my free time.
I don't think it is on the carriers totally, but also the phone makers. Why don't they release updates for their respective handsets?
If you, for example, owned a Galaxy S2, why doesn't Samsung release an update for that model? I'm not saying they don't, but that is an example?
If Verizon received the updates directly from the handset providers as a course of business, they'd offer them.
You would think that would be the case but if you read many articles like I do on why android updates are not released in a timely manner or at all its because of profet. Look at the Galaxy S2, its just getting jelly bean and samsung has been releasing jelly bean for this phone over seas for about a month. Same store for the S3 galaxy line, the US is always last. I find that quite odd and disterbing.
Well, I suppose the US is just last on the releases, just like we receive some upgrades first, so I suppose we can't honestly complain to the carrier if they don't have it either.
Using a mobile device is a risk even when they are patch properly, because it seems someone is always after the holes in them.
It is a good thing that someone is pushing the upgrade system, and Google should for sure get on board to make sure it is practiced across the board.
Now, that might be a drawback for selling the latest devices however for the companies that produce them.
If Nokia keeps updating its older devices quickly, how do the get many consumers to switch up?
I don't know that for sure, but it is a fair guess?
Even Apple only supports 3 generations of phones. These things are being released so fast lately you could almost get 2 generations behind in less then 16 months or less.
Its partly because our carriers customize phones and their software much more than most others in the world. thus, making all the changes to the software to add branding, carrier apps, and bug fix all those changes take time. Not to mention, We have more than one major standard for wireless phone service.
Because apple doesn't need to worry about installing carrier bloatware they can much more quickly get updates tested and approved to run on the networks.
The price of that freedom? Smile.
You can't have both, it just is difficult.
I suppose if Google had a standardized rule, like everyone else has and has had in the past this process would also be faster.
so I am adding more to this board, "google is cracking down on manufactures who produce budget devices and install older android OS". An article I ran across when search for "lastest android update 2014" says that google will not certify a android device if its running anything less then jelly bean. Honestly its about time google take a tuffer stands so fragmentation can be squashed.